But in Jim McDermott’s real world, he’ll happily defend President Barack Obama’s health care law — and defend is precisely what he expects to do in his new post as the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee.

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Defend as in the beach at Normandy, said the Washington Democrat, who is seldom at a loss for a hearty metaphor.

“We’re on the beach, and we got this thing started,” he said. “To be thrown off the beach and have to go back to England and replan a new one would have been a terrible thing.”

“It’s not where I would have chosen to invade if you want to put it in those terms, but we are now on the ground, and we’re gonna take back Paris,” he added.

Stepping into the position long held by Pete Stark, McDermott will be smack in the middle of fights over Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, including the new taxes and insurance subsidies. It’s a logical role for the 76-year-old psychiatrist, who has cultivated an interest in health care and routinely files legislation to create a national insurance plan even though none of those bills have made much progress.

With Republicans holding the subcommittee reins, he’ll instead spend the next two years trying to navigate a working relationship with newly installed chairman Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who is arguably as conservative as McDermott is liberal.

The two worked together on the trade subcommittee last session, when Brady was chairman and McDermott was ranking member, and McDermott insists he likes Brady on a personal level.

“The real problem is at the top,” McDermott told POLITICO in an interview, referring to the House GOP leadership team. “He may act on their behalf, but I’ve always been able to talk to Kevin.”